Prior art systems for high resolution imaging applications utilize an illumination system, an object (a photomask), an objective lens, and an image plane. When an application is limited to the generation of repetitive patterns, interferometric approaches can be substituted and the system components can be limited to an illumination system, a phase object, a method of recombination, and an image plane. Common approaches for printing such patterns are interferometric methods and phase-mask methods. In the former technique, a single laser beam is split into two components, which are subsequently recombined at the image plane to produce an interference pattern. In the latter, a phase mask is used to diffract a laser beam mainly into two first orders. Interference between the two first orders creates the required pattern at the image plane. The two-beam interferometric method has the advantage that the period of the interference pattern may be tuned to produce gratings that operate over a wide range of wave-lengths, but requires a high stability and alignment, whereas the phase-mask method is relatively insensitive to vibration and alignment but lacks the flexibility to select the image grating pitch. In conventional phase-mask technique alignment, tolerances can be demanding due to the presence of diffraction orders other than +/−1. This can be overcome by incorporating the phase mask into a Talbot interferometer (see for instance Talbot, Phil. Mag. and Journ. vol. 9, p. 401, 1836; Rayleigh, Phil. Mag. vol. 11, p. 196, 1881 and P. E. Dyer, R. J. Farley, and R. Giedl, “Analysis of a 0/1 order Talbot interferometer for 193 nm laser grating formation,” Opt. Commun., vol. 129, pp. 98–108, 1996. ) A variation to the phase-mask scheme based on a UV transmitting fused silica prism has been described where the +1 and −1 diffraction orders are internally reflected within a rectangular prism shown in FIG. 1 and interfere at the image plane (see for example A. Othonos “Fiber Bragg Gratings,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 68 (12), 4309–4341 1997). Such an approach is limited to situations where grating images are desired with periods that are one half as that on the available mask (for a +/−1 Talbot interferometer) or the same as that on the available mask (for a 0/1 Talbot interferometer described for example in P. E. Dyer, R. J. Farley, R. Giedel “Analysis and application of a 0/1 order Talbot interferometer for 193 nm laser grating formation,” Opt. Comm., 129, 98–108, 1996). The limited availability of phase masks with gratings pitch values less than 500 nm, and the quality of such masks near 500 nm, limits these approaches to image resolution above 250 nm pitch values. To achieve resolution approaching the diffraction limits of UV wavelengths (such as the 248 nm, 193 nm, or 157 nm wavelengths from excimer lasers) the Talbot interferometer approaches using fused silica prisms such as that shown in FIG. 1 would require a phase mask with a difficult grating pitch near 200 nm (which would result in an image grating pitch near 100 nm). It is also possible to extend resolution by using immersion imaging methods. By placing an immersion fluid with index larger than unity between an optical system and an image plane, propagation angles larger than those allowed in air can be collected. The implication to the prior art Talbot interferometer of FIG. 1 is a phase mask requirement with pitch value below 170 nm, representing significant constraints as the mask dimensions are sub-wavelength, reducing the efficiency of the phase shifting structure. The result is not practical.